Middle East Photos
I am in Selcuk, Turkey. Here are the long overdue photos of my travels through the middle east. Go Lakers!

Egypt:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.6jtog1ii&x=0&y=-13747o&localeid=en_US

Syria:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.20j4ysju&x=0&y=-cjovxy&localeid=en_US

Lebanon:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.c0dr8bka&x=0&y=-k1zgvi&localeid=en_US

Jordan(Petra photos):
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.71o2rmh6&x=0&y=-uo7tsi&localeid=en_US

Israel:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.3cg096dm&x=0&y=-uo22oi&localeid=en_US

My Escape from Beirut
I just got the inspiration to write about my escape as I read the news of the developments in Beirut this morning. Basically, I am lucky to escape when I did. This will be a long post, just to warn you.

I am now in Tel Aviv, safe from the violence in Beirut, which started on Wednesday, May 7. I will now tell you how I escaped Beirut, as Hezbollah takes the city hostage. After the first day of demonstrations and roadblocks, they have already blocked the road to the airport and shut down all incoming and outgoing flights out of Beirut. That's one escape route shut off. The next morning, I wake up to hear that the situation has gotten worse and now the road from Beirut to Damascus, Syria has been blocked off. That's now two escape routes shut off. Once I heard that, I had to get out ASAP! I didn't want to be trapped in Lebanon as a civil war starts between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. To make matters worse, I had to wait for this American girl living in Italy to get back from her overnight trip in Damascus. I was responsible for taking care of her backpack. I was gonna leave without her and her bags, but as I was walking to the bus station, I luckily ran into her. She told me her trip into Beirut from Damascus was crazy. She saw teenagers setting up roadblocks, lighting tires on fire and protesters throwing rocks at their SUV for going around the roadblocks they've set up. Her driver had to go around small towns and take back roads and had to sweet-talk the protesters to let her through. Sometimes she had to help move rocks out of the road for her car to get through. When I saw her, she was a mess, but she stupidly wanted to stay and read about what's going on, but I told her that we had to leave right away. She could read about it after we made our escape.

So at Thursday, 2pm, May 8, we made our way to Tripoli to escape into Syria from one of the two northern borders. We stopped at Tripoli to have lunch and to clear our heads, as she has had a very stressful morning trying to move roadblocks and I was adamant that we leave immediately as two of our escape routes have been closed and I didn't want to wait for any other escape routes to be closed. At 4pm, as we were eating, the TV was turned on and there was a news conference with the Hezbollah leader speaking for what seems like 2 hours. I don't know what he was saying, but I knew that his speech would just make matters worse, so we finished our meal and took a taxi to the border town of Abboudiye. Around 6pm, we got to the Lebanon-Syria border. We ended up waiting at the border for almost 6 hours. Since Americans can't get visas into Syria in the U.S., the Syrian border patrol has to fax over passport info to the U.S. embassy in Damascus and get approvals for entry. Needless to say, this isn't done very quickly, so we had to wait for the replies from Damascus. I felt sorry for her, because yesterday, she had to wait 4 hours just to get into Syria for her day trip. Now 24 hours later, she had to do it again and had to pay another $16 for her visa to stay a few hours in Aleppo to get the bus to Turkey. I almost got arrested, as I tried to enter Syria with my Philippine passport as I exited Lebanon with my American passport. I calmly explained to them that I entered with my Philippine passport because I've previously entered Syria with it before and thought that there would be no problems. The real reason I like to enter with my Philippine passport is that they don't make you wait 6 hours to enter Syria, but I didn't tell them this. So instead of putting me in jail for 10 days, they just processed me as an American and made me wait 6 hours just like my American travel buddy, so it really wasn't a hassle and I got my approval 30 minutes after my friend. We also got regular updates from the officers at the border about the situation in Beirut and they said that the violence has worsened, so we felt so lucky to leave when we did. So 10 hours after we began our escape, we made it out of Lebanon! Yeeeaaaaah!!!

There were torrential rainstorms as we made our way from the Syrian border to Aleppo, which made driving in the slick rain a dangerous proposition, but at around 4am, Friday, May 8, we made it to the Aleppo bus station. She took her bus to Turkey at 5:30am and I made my way to Petra, Jordan. I'm glad to have dragged her along with me to escape Lebanon. She translates Italian news into English and really wanted to stay in Beirut to understand the situation, but I had to convince her that she should read it from a safer distance. Shoot first, ask questions later (I know, that sounds bad). It was annoying having to constantly explain the urgency of the situation, but I understand, as she is a quasi-journalist and being in the thick of things was exciting for her. For me, I wasn't close to dying by any means, but the fact that my escape routes were being closed one by one really increased my willingness to escape. It may be exciting to be there in the thick of things, but I did not want to spend my holiday watching TV and waiting for the news to get better. I wanted to continue traveling and at 7:30pm, Friday, May 8, my long journey ends in Petra, Jordan.

I stayed 2 nights and 1 day to view the Petra buildings carved into stone and they were beautiful! That's all I saw in Jordan and all I wanted to see there, as the throngs of tourists that went to see Petra reminded me of how much I hate Egypt. Weirdly enough, I ran into my British friend who I met traveling in Egypt and we reminisced about how we both equally hate Egypt. Funny how hatred can also create bonds.

Now I am in Tel Aviv, Israel, where I went and finally found some decent salsa dancing last night! I will stay in Israel and take in the religious sites and take advantage of their salsa obsession. Until next time....

Don't worry, I'm OK in Beirut, Lebanon
Today is an interesting day in Beirut.  The trade unions were supposed to have a peaceful demonstration to complain about increasing minimum wage and to protest about rising food and gasoline prices, but instead, Hezbollah (Lebanese Islamic extremist group) has shut down the city by setting tires on fire to act as roadblocks to major avenues, including a major roadblock to the only big road to the airport.  All flights into and out of Beirut have been shut down for the day.  Walking around Beirut this morning, I saw tire smoke and fire just outside my hostel as it is about 5 blocks away to the seaport (I filmed some video on my camera).  Lots of military on the streets on high alert, as I head towards the American University of Beirut to replace the Middle East guidebook I lost 2 days ago while viewing the Roman ruins in Baalbek.  Hezbollah is upset that the Lebanese government is shutting down its communications network, so Hezbollah shut down Beirut's transport network.  Needless to say, schools, businesses and everything else was closed.  I could not buy my book at the university as its bookshop was closed, but luckily, the bookshop nearby the university was open and double luckily, they had my Lonely Planet Middle East guidebook in stock for $40 ($28 was the marked price).  I was hungry and looking for a place to eat was tough, but my 24 hour shawerma shop, Barbar, was nearby the university and open =)  I know I should somehow be afraid of seeing all the military tanks and soldiers around me, no foot or car traffic on the usually busy streets and the closed shops, but I'm not too worried.  I just hope that it calms down enough, so that I can go back to Damascus by tomorrow or Friday to continue my trip down to Jordan.  And I'm concerned that there won't be any salsa tonight.  I know what you're thinking.  Frivolous concerns, considering the seriousness of the situation.  I blame it on watching too much "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Seinfeld".  Or maybe I am just retarded....

Just to comment on the Western news coverage of tense situation here in Beirut, on BBC.com, it is the top story, but on CNN.com, it is not even on the front page!  Man, America sucks reporting on world news!  I wanted to know what was going on and I could not find 1 article on CNN.com.  If you need updated world news, DO NOT go to CNN.com

Beirut is a city with obvious war scars.  Unfinished buildings, newly refurbished buildings and bombed-out buildings make up the landscape of the city.  Soldiers and tanks at every other block.  Damascus didn't have salsa and I needed a salsa fix, so I decided to stay in Beirut just for the salsa.  I went the last two nights and I would say that the salsa here is small and not so good, but good enough after a few months of not getting any.  The food here is really good, but a little more expensive than in Syria.  The people here look beautiful.  I like the people and the food here, but walking around the city itself is pretty boring.  I would recommend Beirut for nightlife and food.  

Traveling around Lebanon, Baalbek is a nice place with Roman ruins.  I am pretty sick of seeing Roman ruins after Palmyra and Apamea in Syria, so Baalbek was not too impressive.  Tripoli is Lebanon's second city and luckily me and my friend had a good guide to show us around the city and found that Tripoli has a lot of quirky little gems around every corner.  Tripoli's sweets are sooo good!

Lebanon is an interesting country with beautiful people and great food.  For sightseeing, there's not much to see, but if you are interested in Roman history, you might enjoy it here as the Romans left a pretty good imprint.

Last week, I was in Syria.  The most beautiful castle I've ever seen was Crac des Chevaliers in the town of Hosn.  It is a must-see for anyone visiting Syria!  There are Roman ruins in Palmyra and Apamea.  Palmyra is the bigger and more touristy one.  Apamea is smaller, but the surrounding green fields are beautiful.  I spent one night in Damascus and walked around a little.  It has a beautiful old town.  I'll be back to Damascus in a few days to check it out more and reserve judgement for later, but so far, it has been really nice.

Syria is a great country for backpackers.  Food and hostels are cheap.  People are really nice and will not try to sell you tourist crap.  I would love to spend more time in Syria maybe to study Arabic, but I'm sort of in a hurry to see more things on the travel itinerary.  Until next time....

Marhaba from Aleppo, Syria

Greetings from one of Bush's "axis of evil" nations. Now I start the most interesting part of this trip as I go through forbidden countries (accoding to the U.S.) like Syria, Lebanon and Israel. I arrived here yesterday and it took me 22 hours by bus from Istanbul, Turkey costing about $50. The bus from Turkey left me at the Syrian border entrance without my knowledge because I was taking so long with getting my visa entrance stamp. Basically you need to have a pre-arranged visa before you enter Syria. The rules for getting into Syria if you are from a western country are:
- A letter of recommendation from your embassy.
- If your country has a Syrian embassy, you have to apply for the visa in your home country. You cannot get one at the border. But if your country does not have a Syrian embassy or consulate, you can get a visa at the border.

As an American, I could not visit Syria. The U.S. embassy doesn't issue letters of recommendation for Americans to visit Syria and this letter of recommendation is mandatory. But bada-bing! I am a Philippine passport holder too and the Philippines does not have a syrian Embassy, so I applied for a visa at the border. After two hours of running around to different windows using my 18 hours of Pimsleur arabic lessons and $34 visa fee, they gave me my entrance stamp and in my best Borat voice, I yelled "Great Sucesss! High Five!"  I love my two-passport system!

But I was still stranded by that damn Turkey bus during visa formalities. How did I get from the Syrian border to Aleppo? I recognized one of the guys from my bus and he basically told me that the Turkey bus ditched me and my bag there on purpose because I was taking too long. But he patiently waited for me, since his friend picked him up at the border and took me to the junction where I could take a minibus into Aleppo. He was a nice Syrian guy living in Idlib. I think the bus driver paid him some money to wait for me because I was holding up the bus. So I guess, lucky-lucky for me!

Aleppo is a decent city famous for its labryinth market next to the citadel. I have already eaten so much since I got here yesterday because the food is so good and cheap. I just came back from lunch from the nicest restarant in town and ate like a king and the bill was around $10. So far, there has been no tourist hassle and I am surprised to see that there are lots of women that don't wear the headscarf and smoke cigarettes =) Very nice indeed! And my limited arabic has already helped me start conversations with people pretty easily.

This afternoon, while sitting at a bench under a tree, I had a great hour-long conversation with a 45-year-old retired Iraqi officer visiting Aleppo but living in Mosul, Iraq. I told him I was from the Philippines so that I can get from him his true opinions of the situation in Iraq. He served 20 years in the Iraq miltary mostly fighting Iran and fighting in the 1990s gulf war in Kuwait. He has shook hands with Sadaam Hussein. He lives with his wife and two teenage kids in a 600 square meter house (Big house). He has had offers to leave Iraq as a refugee in Germany, Sweden and other countries, but he loves Iraq so much and cannot bear to part with their big house. To paraphrase a few things he said:

- "Sadaam was a brave, sympathetic guy who loved Iraq and made Iraq what it was before the U.S. invasion. Sadaam was an Arab and stood up for all Arabs". My friend only regrets Sadaam's policies as bad, but to my friend, Sadaam was a cool guy!

- Before the U.S. occupation, gasoline for your car cost 4 dinars. Now it costs 400 dinars! The government now controls the oil and they are now the only oil-rich nation in the world with expensive gasoline (Saudis and Venezuelans pay next to nothing for gasoline in their cars).

- The current government in Iraq is run by the Kurdish minority. Before Sadaam was ousted, Kurds, Arabs and Christians lived respectfully with each other in Mosul. After Sadaam, the Kurds started to treat the Arabs like shit, as Sadaam was pro-Arab and didn't like the Kurds.

- "We want the Americans out now!" is what the Iraqi people say publicly, but privately he admits to me that the Americans are doing a better job of running the country than the current Kurdish government they have now and if the Americans leave, the Kurds will take over northern Iraq and Iran will take Baghdad and the south.

- "They would be killed in Iraq." This is what he said when I showed him how the women were dressing in Aleppo (not wearing headscarves, revealing more skin that is usual for him and smoking cigarettes). In Iraq, the women are dressed in all black and covered from head to toe and don't smoke.

It was really fun talking to him and seeing his point of view, even though I don't agree with him on most issues. I think he was honest with me because he spoke in low voices when British people sat close to our bench and he mentioned that he has to keep quiet because of them. For me, honesty is more important than being politically correct all the time and I let him speak his voice.

Tomorrow morning, I leave for either Lattakia(the Mediterranean beaches) or Hama (sightseeing), as I haven't decided yet. Until next time...

Egypt sucks
I am now in Dahab, Egypt relaxing after traveling through Egypt's famous sites.  I've had enough of Egypt's package tourist hordes and will stay here on the beach with my Arabic audio lessons until my flight to Germany on April 22.  I have about 8 days left until then, and I thought about going to Israel to get my salsa fix, but decided against it as I am running out of pages in my passport and that I'm coming around to Israel and Jordan later on anyway.

Cairo is a very dirty city and ranks as the 3rd dirtiest city I've ever visited (Manila the dirtiest and Bangkok 2nd dirtiest).  I visited the Egyptian museum, the pyramids of Giza and the Red pyramid in Dashour. One word of advice: Do NOT go into the medium pyramid in Giza as it is not worth it at all.  If you are really curious to see inside a pyramid, go to Dashour and go inside the Red pyramid as it is cheaper and there are less tourists.

Aswan is the southernmost big city in Egypt.  I went to see the temple of Abu Simbel three hours from here and it was okay.  Me and my Swiss-French desert nomad friend got banned from a Koshari (Egyptian noodle dish) place for paying the correct price on the menu.  Basically, the waiter tried to charge us 1 dollar each for Koshary.  I told him to point out the word Koshary on the arabic menu.  Knowing the arabic numbers, I looked at the price and it said it cost 40 cents.  So me and my friend payed 40 cents each, but the waiter got mad and then pointed at another item that costed 1 dollar.  There were other Egyptians in the place and I asked them where on the menu Koshary was and they pointed to the ones that were worth 40 cents.  Getting caught, the shamed and embarassed waiter offered to give our dishes for free, but us showing them that we are better than him, we paid the 40 cents each.  The next time we went back to that place, we were not allowed to eat there as we exited laughing at how we could not be welcome by paying the price on the menu.  But our victory against shady Egyptian businesses was short-lived.

The biggest ripoff we had was our felucca boat trip from here to Luxor.  We thought we were getting a good deal where we would sail up the Nile river for 2 days and 2 nights for $20 including food.  It didn't turn out that we were sailing all the way up to Luxor.  I think we sailed for the grand total of 2 hours and most of the time we were just on shore. As we were sailing, the captain called shore to have beer delivered to our boat, but charged us $2 each beer $4 for a bucket of ice and $6 service charge for bringing the stuff to the boat.  We ordered expecting 500ml cans, but got 330ml cans.  We ordered only 18 beers, but the captain said they only came in a 24 pack, so we had to eat the cost of 6 beers (which the captain and crew readily drank).  Everyone on the boat was pretty upset with the captain openly ripping us off, but most decided not to make a fuss, as he and his crew were also making our food.  A 21-year-old Swedish know-it-all couldn't keep his cool and started screaming at the captain when the small beers arrived.  The captain put on his best Angry Arab act and pretended not to understand what the problem was with the small beers and 6 extra beers that we in the boat payed for.  The swedish guy was allergic to gluten too and had to have special rice dishes prepared for him, so yelling at the captain was not very wise of him.  That night, the captain prepared for him his gluten free rice dish.  An English guy decided to try some of his rice dish.  The english guy ended up throwing up all night at the side of the boat.  Maybe it's just me, but I think the captain poisoned a part of the swedish guy's rice dish and the english guy ate the poisoned part.

The next day, the wind was very strong in the opposite direction which made sailing harder.  The captain sailed for an hour and docked, fearing that his boat would not be able to take the harsh winds and would break.  So we spent all day docked to this small island and the next day, we would sail across to the other side of the Nile where microbuses would pick us up and drive us to two other temples and Luxor.  DO NOT do this felucca trip when you are in Aswan.  I think even if you pay more, all the felucca captains do the same thing.

Luxor is the nicest place in Egypt in terms of stuff to see.  I visited Karnak temple and it was beautiful, but all the large tour groups make the experience really annoying.  Even though there are many things to see, that is the only thing I saw in Luxor as I already made up my mind that after Cairo, Aswan and Luxor, I had seen enough of Egypt and just wanted to leave all the tourist traps and go to the beach at the backpacker enclave of Dahab.  I was bitter and tired.  The Egyptian shopworkers and tourist hordes have beaten me.

All in all, Egypt is the worst country I've ever visited.  Everything is cheap here, but you have to bargain for everything, even bottled water.  The true price is 40 cents for 1.5 liters of bottled water, but they will try to charge you 1 dollar.  I don't like to bargain for food because I am paranoid that if I bargain the food down, they will spit in it or do something equally bad.  At restaurants, I always get the Arabic menu and English menu because usually they double the price on the English menu.  Then I point what I want in the Arabic menu.  When the bill comes, they always want me to pay the price in the English menu.  They don't know that I can read the Arabic numbers, so I always pay the cheaper Egyptian price and leave the restaurant. The restaurants get mad when I do this, but I don't like to pay foreigner prices.  Most Egyptian businesses love to rape ignorant tourists but I'm a backpacker and I won't be raped today.

Egypt is only a place for Egyptologists and two-week vacationers. It is hard to meet an authentic Egyptian who wants to hang out with you and not want to sell you something because everyone ends up in Egypt to look at the tourist sites.  The food is not that good.  Egyptian shops and restaurants and their workers only see foreigners as walking money bags.  Egyptians will never steal from you directly, but if you have to buy something from them, they will try to take as much as they can.  In all the places in the world that I have been, Egypt is the WORST place for people hassling you all the time to buy their crap.  The best place to learn about Egypt and it's people is through books and Discovery channel and not through actually going to the country.  I have never made such a claim before and I think I will never make such a claim again.  Egypt is just not fun if you know a little Arabic because you know too much and you are too aware of the Egyptians trying to cheat you.  If you are an ignorant two-week vacationer and are unaware that you are paying double or triple the normal price, then maybe Egypt might be fun, but the constant hassle will probably be not worth the cheap-looking prices.

More Morocco Photos and Video from Madrid Salsa Congress

Draa Valley, Morocco with 3 Brits, desert camel ride:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18011&l=ffef0&id=718597630

More morocco pics of desert movie sets :
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.5w2wpizm&x=0&y=met8me

Seville, Madrid and Madrid Salsa Congress photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=g1hf4te.9ak0274y&x=0&y=nwecdv

Me and Lidia dancing at Madrid Salsa congress:
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=894404892723758048

 

 

Hola de Madrid, Spain

Today, I am recovering from 4 days of dancing after attending the Madrid Salsa Congress.  You may be wondering what I'm doing in expensive Europe when I'm supposed to be in traveling in Morocco.  Well, to be perfectly honest,  I got bored with the lack of female eye candy and I sorely needed a salsa fix after not dancing for about 3 weeks.  So on a whim, I looked up some upcoming salsa congresses in Europe and lo and behold, there was one coming up on March 20-23 in Madrid, Spain and it would kill two birds with one stone.  I had a great time.  Photos and video will be posted shortly.

Being in Spain really kills the budget because the dollar is so crappy at the moment.  I haven't eaten out and have been cooking fried eggs, sausage and toast for the last 2 weeks just to save money.  With the exchange rate and holy week, my dorm bed has been costing up to 27 euros ($41) for a dorm bed!  Ridiculous!

I will be here in Madrid until March 27, then I fly to Frankfurt, catch a train to Cologne-Bonn to catch a flight to Cairo, Egypt on March 28.  Now that salsa is done, I will be exploring Madrid for the next few days and so far, I think Madrid is a really cool place, but they sorely lack 24 hour food access like the chicken-rice carts in NYC or the kebab stands in Berlin and Krakow.  I don't know if it is too safe though, as in one hostel I stayed at, there were two instances of muggings on the street.  So when I was walking back from the dancing at 6am, I was always wary of people trying to ask me for smokes thinking that they will rob me, but I made it through okay. 

Leaving off from the last post, I went hiking in the high atlas towards Toukbal peak, I never made it because there was snow and I was too cheap to rent crampons, ice axe and a guide to summit the peak.  It went against my philosophy on starting this trip in the first place, which was to avoid the NYC cold weather, so I naturally declined. Also, disaster struck when I was hiking with my laptop.  I tripped on some loose gravel and fell.  I looked in my bag and saw that I cracked my screen.  There are now black spots all over, but it still works and I can still use it even though it is irritating. The walks around Toukbal are nice and maybe I will come back to summit in the summertime, as I don't like to leave things unfinished.

After Toukbal, I met these 3 british folks in the Toukbal refuge and we decide to go to Ouarzazate and rent a car to see the Draa Valley and spend the night in the desert near the town of M'Hamid.  We drove through incredible scenery and saw desert oases and beautiful mountain backdrops which inspire movie directors like Ridley Scott, who according to my Atlas Studios guide shoots 2 movies a year in the surrounding Ouarzazate area. Hanging out with the Berber nomads in their tent was really nice too as they prepared for us a nice chicken tajine and sang berber nomadic songs.  Pretty cool stuff.  There was a swiss german guy among the berber guys and he liked them so much, that he spent 2 weeks with them and they even gave him a berber name and a tuareg, the berber nomad outfit and they even made him a cameleer.

We drove back to Ouarzazate after the sunrise camel trek and the brits had to boogie, so I stayed for another night so that I can see the road from Marrakech to Ouarzazate by bicycle.  The afternoon sun is so beautiful, it is indescribable.  Most desert films are filmed here, like The Scorpion King, The Passion of the Christ and many others.  Highly recommended to see this if you are ever in Morocco.

After the bike ride, I made the decision to go to the Madrid Salsa Congress.   I was getting bored, because I could not speak French or Berber and could not culturally immerse.

Next I went to Todra Gorge. Nice, but if you're in a hurry, you can give it a miss.  Here, I finally found some Berbers who can speak Spanish, so I was able to talk to them.  They mentioned that they are Muslim, but are free to have premarital sex, drink alcohol and to find their own spouses.  They were workers at Le Festival, the auberge where I camped. They let me into the kitchen where I helped them make moroccan soup for the hotel patrons.  Afterwards, they played Berber drums and sang until we were tired.  Really awesome people, these Berbers.

My trip towards Spain starting fron the gorge was a really long one.  I made my way to Fes intending to stay the night, but the King happened to be there that week and all the cheap hotels were full, so I just went to the train station to sleep on the train on the way to Tangiers, the gateway port city to Spain and the rest of Europe.  I finally arrived in Seville after 33 hours straight via morning truck ride, all day bus, night train, early morning ferry and afternoon bus with no sleep and no shower after hiking two days before.  What a relief to feel that hot water shower after an arduous journey.

Overall, I can only recommend Morocco if you speak French or Berber.  Tajine and couscous are good, but not spicy enough for my palate and too healthy for me.  Lots of hiking options and awesome Berber people.  Not too expensive, but not cheap either.  One to two weeks should be enough to get a good taste of the country.

Seville is a really nice city and I happened to catch it during Easter week, hence the 25-27 euro per night dorm beds.  I like that they have lots of bike lanes and free city bike usage for 30 minutes or less.  What a great idea!  It was also nice to be in a country where I can understand the language and feel some sort of connection with the people and it's culture.  Maybe I'm getting old and set in my ways, but it seems I seek familiarity and something to relate to the older I get.  The bad part of Seville is that Americans have taken over the city for Spring Break and a lot of young American kids who say "like" a lot have taken over the streets.  Really annoying. 

I'll continue to explore Madrid and now that Easter's done and dorm prices are back to normal (16 euros or $24), I can try out some tapas and beer!  Until next time! 

Pictures of Brasil, Buenos Aires and Morocco

Here are the pics with comments: 

Rio De Janeiro Dec 6, 2007 - Jan 31, 2008

Copacabana Beach New Year's Eve 2008

Buenos Aires Feb 1-13, 2008

Morocco Feb 26 - Mar 14, 2008

Marhaba from Marrakech, Morocco

Happy 2008 everyone! 

Finally, I am in Africa, my fifth continent.  I have been here for a week now and so far, it has been a strange adjustment coming from fun and liberal South America to traditional, conservative Muslim Africa.  My main objectives for the next few months is to eat strange, delicious food and see if I can tolerate conservative life without the eye candy of hot women and without dancing salsa, which I miss already.  I am pretty lonely at the moment, as Morocco speaks French and Moroccan Arabic, which is different from the Eastern Arabic I am learning and there are no hostels for me to meet other travellers.  The Moroccan food, which I thought I would really like, is not as good as what I've had in NYC, but it's still early.  Eating boiled sheep's head and snail soup was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and didn't taste as bad as I expected.  The cookies and little sweets taste damn good, though.  I tried to go to a place where I thought they would have salsa here in Marrakech, but it turned out to be a prostitute bar with $13 drinks.  I don't know how long I will last at this rate, but I plan to stay in Morocco for 3-4 weeks, then I will fly to Egypt and continue into Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Marrakech is a nice tourist town with a big, interesting market square and nice museums.  It's cheap to eat here.  I don't know what else to say because I'm still in culture shock and conservatism isn't really how I roll.  Being in Malaysia before, I understand a little about Muslim countries, but I still don't know how to completely behave out here.  I don't know if I can talk to the women with the headscarves or if it is forbidden.  Western women get hassled by boys here all the time because they can't get any until they are married.  Beer and liquor are expensive, but shouldn't be.  Everyone, man or woman, has their arms and legs covered, even though it is really hot.  I feel there is no petty theft in Muslim countries because it is forbidden to steal and people are god-fearing.  But please don't let my anti-conservative views discourage you from exploring Muslim countries because you may be stronger than me in avoiding booze and your interest in women may be weaker than mine.  My bias towards fun and freedom are very strong and it will be put to the test as I travel through these Muslim parts.

Since my last posting, I spent New Year's Eve 2008 on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.  At midnight, the sky just explodes above you with fireworks for about 20 minutes.  It is an amazing event and everyone should do it once in their lives.  I spent almost two months in Rio taking lambada-zouk lessons and learning how to play beach volleyball.  The staff at my hostel were really fun and we went out a few nights to samba clubs and soccer games at Maracana stadium.  Rio has doubled in price since I started going there in 2003.  Curse the stupid weak dollar!  I still love Brasil and I will go there even though the Real is strong, but it will be expensive for me.  And that's why I spent my last 13 days in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I took a 40 hour bus ride for 230 reais to Buenos Aires.  Brasil was starting Carnaval and it was going to be expensive to stay in the hostel, so I left for steaks, ice cream, salsa dancing and the better exchange rate in Buenos Aires.  I also sprained 2 of my fingers playing volleyball and was getting bored of dancing lambada-zouk, so I needed a break from Brasil to do some serious cheap eating and salsa dancing.  The hostel I was staying in was great and had some pretty strange sleeping habits.  One girl sucked her thumb as she slept and another girl had her hand down her pants, Al Bundy style, when she slept.  I wanted to take a picture, but restrained myself.  After 5 years, Buenos Aires is still cheap, but since they peg their currency to the US dollar, it has not gotten that much more expensive.  The subway system has free Wi-fi at all stations!  Super cool!  Using my Nokia E90 phone to make free internet calls and to surf the net in the subway was something us Americans just aren't used to.  I was very impressed and stumped as to why they don't have this in NYC subway system.  If Buenos Aires can do it, so can NYC!

On Valentine's Day, I flew back to NYC, picked up someone nice and spent 4 nights, 5 days in Cancun, Mexico in Excellence Riviera Cancun all-inclusive resort.  The resort was beautiful, but their beach was not so nice.  We had a great lover's holiday, but I had to continue traveling the world and it was still cold in NYC.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Jebel Toukbal, the highest peak in North Africa.  Until next time! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah from Rio de Janeiro

Wow!  I'm traveling again!  I know I sound like a liar, since my last meaningful blog post was December 13, 2006 and I mentioned that it would be the last time I would be traveling for a long time.  Why am I traveling again, you might ask?  I will blame it on the weather when I came back from Brasil in December 2006.  The New York 2007 winter was so cold and lasted for so long that I promised myself that I wasn't gonna suffer next winter in the same predicament.  And when I make up my mind, there are no changing plans.  So now, here I am in tropically rainy Rio de Janeiro and have been here since December 6, preparing to embark on another long trip where I'll be experiencing New Year's, learning to dance lambada-zouk and taking beach volleyball lessons until February 14, 2008.  Then I will be going to the Middle East and continuing to explore the parts of Eastern Europe that I missed the last time I was traveling.  

Looking back, 2007 was an interesting year for me that went really quickly.  I started working as a Java consultant in February and made really good money for 5 months.  In May, I officially paid off all my debts and finally became completely debt-free after being in so much debt for 10 years!  That was a big accomplishment for me, as I look at everyone and laugh as they are trapped in jobs they don't like just so that they can make their car, credit card, cell phone and mortgage payments, while I can just quit my job at anytime and take off with no burden of lingering payments whatsoever!  (I know that I'm an insensitive bastard ;)  The ultimate life of freedom. 

After my contract was done in June, I didn't work for 2 months and for about 2 weeks, I went with my friend to Jamaica before he started his new job.  After a month in his new job, my friend recommended me for an opening at his new company.  So I took this contract in August 15 and stayed until November 16. 

Financially, 2007 has been my best year.  In total, I worked only 8 months.  But in those 8 months, I was able to pay off the majority of 10 years of debt AND be able to save for this trip AND still live in NYC which is one of the most expensive places to live in the US.  I think it is a miracle how this happened.

Emotionally, 2007 in NYC was a mixed bag.  Even though I was making more money that I've ever made, I was miserable during the cold winther months which lasted until May.  Dwelling on this misery was my driving force for making sure to leave at the end of the year and leave the good money, as I already know that having lots of money does not make me particularly happy. 

I fell in love with salsa on2 and pints of Guinness, which were my only therapy during those cold winter months.  I have to thank my Lithuainian ex-girlfriend for pointing out to me that my salsa was crap at that time and she encouraged me to just be better at it.  I think my salsa improved a lot in 2007 because NYC has just so many good dancers who are just as obsessed as I am!  But I am still far from being one of the best in NYC and have a long way to go.  

2007 was my 29th year on this earth.  I dwelled upon getting old and turning 30 and that added to my 2007 emotional misery.  I felt so much urgency to do things NOW instead of later, because I feel that we are all in a race against time and that you can die tomorrow.  I don't want to live in this world just to EXIST, I want to LIVE a vibrant, exciting life with lots of adventure!  For me, turning 30 was a big deal.  I would not be 20-something anymore, which sounds old.  I could not be carefree anymore, because in being 30-something, you have to be mature.  Being 30-something, you cannot have adventures anymore, you have to be stable.  All this thinking about getting old made me sorta loony.  Well, in October, I turned 30....

And I'm still alive and free =)   All my misery about turning 30 also contributed to me traveling for all of 2008 (or until the money runs out).  While I was making all that money in 2007, I promised myself to escape the NYC winter AND enjoy the world in my 30th year of existence.  My friend's friend turned 30 last year and he told me about his plan to travel the world in his 30th year, so I guess I got some inspiration for this current trip from him.  And I'm meeting him here in Rio De Janeiro for New Year's Eve 2008, so we will swap travel stories and see how his 30th year was and ring in the new year correct!

It's funny how life is for me when I am about to leave to go traveling. More often than not, I fall in love with someone just before leaving.  Well, it happened again as I left NYC to embark on this long journey.  Dwelling upon this pattern, I guess this happens to me because I am just so happy and in good spirits when I tell women that I'll be off on another adventure and the positive vibes just overflow to strong feelings within us.  Or maybe women are attracted to me because I will be a scarce commodity and they secretly yearn for someone to fall in love with for a short time.  Whatever the reason is, it is both a blessing and a curse..... 

Well, that's enough ranting for now.  New Year's in Rio should be awesome!  I'll report on the experience later.  Again, please write something back, as traveling gets lonely sometimes.  Have a great and safe holiday season and I look forward to reading your replies soon!

Travel Photos 2006

Long overdue, but here are the photos I took when I was traveling in Eastern Europe and Brasil from May until December.  Click on the links below to view.

Poland (mostly Krakow) Pictures
Travelling with my cousin through mostly Rotterdam and Amsterdam
Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic and Tatras Mountains in Poland
Brasil Pictures of Amazon River and Jericoacoara

End of the Road 2006

Greetings from rainy San Francisco, California.  After travelling 7 months through Eastern Europe and Brasil, I am sad to say that I am in the US once again.  I am here in San Francisco to eat good food and see good friends that I haven't seen in a while.  It's my first time here in three years and it seems like not much has changed.  This is why I moved to New York...  something new and different always pops up in the Big Apple.  

I'll be in California for the holidays until January 3, then I will start life anew again in New York City.  Now, I will enjoy my family and friends and try to get acclimated to normal life.  

Now onto the chronicles of the last few weeks in Brasil...

Fortaleza was a good party time.  Praia do Futuro, Fortaleza's city beach, is big and beautiful.   The nice girl I met when I arrived surprised me again on the day I was leaving with a proper send-off.  Fortaleza is recommended for good nightlife and relaxing city beaches.

After Fortaleza, I went to Lencois, the gateway city to Parque Nacional Chapada Diamantina to get away from beaches and to do some hiking.  I went on a 4-day hike with a local guide and a cute plastic surgeon from Belo Horizonte.  Our hike took us to see many beautiful waterfalls and steamy jungles.  What made the trek even more interesting was that it was sort of a weird love triangle.  I was diggin the girl, but the girl was diggin the guide.  Since I can't compete with the guide, I let them have a lot of alone time together as I hung back as they walked.  But on the last day, we were supposed to go our separate ways, but the girl wanted to do an additional one day hike alone and she asked me if I wanted to keep her company.  I wanted to leave already, hurt that she liked the guide more than me, but I flipped a coin to see if I should accompany her or not.  The coin said to go with her and we had a great time talking on the trail.  We mostly talked about her feelings for the guide and how she tried to convince herself that she was too young for him.  She told me that I treated her better than the guide and that I'm the better man, but she's still more fascinated by him.  Oh well, I'll never figure out love and women....

After hiking in the national park, I went to Trancoso, a chill beach town with a nice church looking over a cliff with a beautiful ocean view.  I spent the weekend there, but it rained for most of it, so I was mostly in my room playing with my computer.  I did manage to go out and dance forro and had a good time with the locals and tourists there.  I saw a beautiful wedding at the church with the nice view and thought that would be an excellent place to get married.  

To escape the rain and do more hiking, I went to Ilha Grande, a few hours away from Rio De Janeiro.  But it's December and rainy season, so I could not escape it, even though I thought the rain gods would be on my side.  I did one hike there to Lopes Mendes beach, supposedly one of the nicest beaches in Brasil.  It was beautiful, but the weather was crap.  On the way back, it was raining so hard that rivers started to form on the trail.  I had one stupid incident where I tried to jump over a river, but my pants got caught in some hidden barbed wire.  Luckily, it didn't pierce through my skin, but it was pretty scary for the guy I was walking with.  I got tangled in there pretty bad.  

After two nights camping in the rain in Ilha Grande, I've had enough.  I decided to go back to Rio for the weekend and just relax there until I go back to the states.  In Rio, I found an even cheaper place than Carretao for all-you-can-eat meat, Moncique, but the meat selection and quality are not as good.  

Well, this wraps up the travelling in 2006.  I don't think that I'll be going on long trips like this anymore, which makes me real sad :(  My current plan is to settle down for a while New York City and pay off my debts so that I can be debt-free by the time I'm 30.  Then, when I'm 33 or so, I will somehow live out of the United States (hopefully a bed-and-breakfast in Brasil), where, with exception to NYC, I just can't stand American culture.  Watching American TV for the first time in 7 months, I just couldn't relate.  I just talked to my good friend's brother as he travelled Europe for the first time this summer.  He was severely depressed before his trip, but when he came back, it was like he was a new man.  He talked to me about his eye-opening experiece of travel and he reminded me of my first euro trip in 2000 at the innocent age of 22, where everything was fresh and new.  Talking to him and seeing his innocent exuberance, I hope that I can regain that same enthusiasm as I take a break from travelling and settle into normal life.  Thanks for reading and hopefully I've inspired some of you to get out and see the world as well.

Ola do Fortaleza, Brasil
Greetings from Fortaleza, Brasil.  I've been here in Brasil since October 4 and will go back stateside on December 5 to spend the holidays with friends and family in California and Las Vegas, so the travelling since May is starting to wind down and I'm already dipping into my emergency fund.  I haven't found much inspiration to write as frequently or as vividly as I would like to, compared to my first long trip in 2004 and it has been depressing me. I think I've just seen too much and things inevitably start to look similar or comparable to something I've seen before, so surprises and freshness is missing.  Also, this is my fourth trip to Brasil and I get a feeling of how it works, more or less, down here.  I think travelling 20 months in the past three years is a lot as well, and I'm getting up there in age (29), so this will probably be the last long trip in my life as I settle down and begin my slow death like everyone else ;)

When I arrived from Eastern Europe, I stayed in Rio de Janeiro for two weeks and did the same thing almost every day. I woke up at 11am, ate acai in a bowl with granola.  Then, I walked from Copacabana beach to Leblon beach to get some exercise, check out the vibe and walked back.  On alternate days, I would go to Carretao, an all you can eat steak place, at 3 or 4pm because it was the cheapest time to eat.  Then, I would take a nap at around 8pm to 11pm and afterwards go out at night.  I tried to find salsa places to continue the salsa them, but it is not so big here.  But I did find some spots on weekend nights and met a really good dancer from Sao Paolo.  She told me that there would be a salsa conference there in two weeks, but it was not in my plans to attend.  Oh, I finally found those colorful ceramic-tiled steps Pharell was sitting on in the Snoop Dogg video "Beautiful", which was shot in Rio De Janeiro.  I've been trying to find these steps the first three times I was here before, but never found them, so mission accomplished!

After stuffing myself silly with nice beef for two weeks, I took a bus down to Sao Paolo to catch a flight to Santarem, a city on the Amazon river.  I only stayed in Sao Paolo for one night and I went to the salsa place the girl from Sao Paolo told me to go to.  The salsa scene in Sao Paolo is real good and there are a lot of really good dancers there, but they come from a ballroom dancing background, so they are more of the show style variety instead of just dancing socially.  I saw the girl I danced with in Rio here and saw her dance with her regular partner.  They were just amazing!  I knew that she was a salsa teacher and a previous ballroom dancer, but I didn't know that she was that good!  Then she told me that she and her friends there were competing in the Brasil salsa open during the upcoming salsa conference.  Needless to say, I didn't do much dancing that night and just watched her and her dancer friends take to the floor and dance away.  She asked me to dance with her, but after watching her and her friends dance, I was just too intimidated and she was mad that I didn't dance with her.  When I asked her to dance in Rio, there was nobody else dancing well and I was on my third caipirinha, so I just danced naturally like I do and we both had fun.  But here, I didn't drink so much and I was just too mesmerized with the good dancing that I lost my confidence.  For a guy, doing something without confidence will always lead to failure and this applies to dancing and life in general.

The next day, I flew to Santarem, a city on the Amazon river.  I bought a hammock there, since I would need it for the two day boat ride on the Amazon river to Belem.  I spent two nights in Alter Do Chao, a relaxing river beach town an hour away from Santarem.  The river beach was nice and since I'm travelling in low season, it was empty as well.  I think this place will be overrun by hippies soon once it is discovered, because I think you can set up a tent on the beach and nobody will bother you and the place just has a really relaxed vibe.

The riverboat ride on the Amazon was nice and relaxing as well.  There's not much to do on the boat but eat, sleep, read, talk and watch music videos of brazilian bands on the upstairs deck.  While watching those videos, I found out I like pagode, a brazilian offshoot of samba played with a four string banjo-like instrument.  Try and find Grupo Revelacao, my favorite pagode band.  The sunset on the Amazon is absolutely beautiful.  And seeing the river people who row up to our big boat trying to sell stuff or put stuff on board is an experience as well.  I didn't see any pink dolphins or try to fish for piranhas, but the boat trip was sufficient and I can write off that I've been on the Amazon river.

Belem is the big city at the Atlantic end of the Amazon river.  Didn't like the city too much, so I moved onto Ilha do Marajo.  This place is the quietest beach town I've been to in Brasil.  I didn't do much there but relax.  I saw a habitat for these beautiful red-orange birds which look like storks near one of the pretty beaches on this island.  There's not much to do there but talk to the locals, which are really nice and friendly.

On to Sao Luis, the reggae capital of Brasil.  I spent two nights here, but could have stayed longer if I wasn't in such a hurry.  On my last night there, I met this nice bolivian-german girl while I was listening to a reggae band on one of the outdoor bars.  Too bad I had to leave at 5am to get a bus to Parque Nacional Lencois do Maranhenses, a place of sand dunes which look like bedsheets (lencois in portuguese) and lagoons.  It was dry season, so all the lagoons were empty, but you can imagine how beautiful the place is when there's water.  Driving around in sand dunes on a 4 wheel drive truck is real bumpy, but somehow it wasn't so bad for me.  

After the sand dunes came more sand dunes as I made my way overland to the trendy beach town of Jericoacoara.  It's a touristy place with foreigners and rich Brazilians trying to learn windsurfing or kitesurfing.  There's a lot of good partying here as well and I got to try to fake forro, the regional music and dance.  It's easy enough, as it is not as technical as North American salsa, but is a little more free-flowing like Cuban salsa.  I stayed three nights because getting here from the bedsheet sand dunes was pretty difficult.  I had to ride in back of a bumpy truck the whole way.  But I did get to spend two nights in some small towns where I got to speak to the nice locals.  They are so underemployed and bored in these parts that they have absolutely nothing to do but speak to weirdos like me and shoot pool.

So now I'm in Fortaleza and I found a room owned by a moroccan-french guy with the internet router in my room.  Since I'm travelling with my laptop for these last two months, I am finally writing this trip update, since I feel that I have to take advantage of the free internet and that an update is long overdue and I might forget some experiences if I delay it.  Fortaleza is a good nightlife city.  The music is always pumping and people are dancing.  Met a nice local girl here and had a nice time last night, but I can't remember her name.  My memory is starting to slip in my old age...

To end this entry on a quirky note, I will describe to you how I've observed Brazilians wiping their noses.  They take the heel of their left hand and place it just above their upper lip.  Then, they guide the heel of their hand up, towards their forehead as if they're trying to force the snot back into their noses.  I tried to emulate this motion and it gives me the giggles :)  I don't know if this is going to be funny to you guys, but I think it looks funny when I see them do it.  Try it yourself...

I have about three weeks left, so I'll be hustling from now, as there are still things I want to see before I leave, so this is probably the last entry until the very end of the trip.  In two days, I go to Salvador to go to Chapada Diamantina to do some hiking and get away from beaches for a while so "Tchao" for now and see you soon if you're in the LA area.

La Tomatina and leaving Eastern Europe

Greetings everyone!  Sorry, I haven't had the inspiration to write for a while, but after travelling with good friends from California and the inspiration of a coin flip, I have regained new energy :)  At the moment, I am in Budapest for the third time on this trip, getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.  Last thursday, I was in the bathroom taking a dump where I made an important decision.  I would flip a coin and let fate decide whether to continue travelling in Eastern Europe onto Romania and Bulgaria or to take an expensive flight to my favorite country in the world, Brasil.  So I set the 50 hungarian florint coin with the numbers up to indicate Brasil, because it would be more expensive and flipped it in the air.  It landed with the numbers up, so Brasil, here I come!  So since that fateful day, I've been arranging my flights and buses to visit my special someone in Lithuania and make my flight from New York to Rio on October 4.  At night, I've been practicing my salsa in the energetic Budapest nightlife.  When we came here last thursday, there were demonstrations to oust the prime minister here in Hungary.  CNN and BBC make it look more dangerous than it is.  All the news I've been getting helped me make the decision to flip the coin.  Countries I wanted to visit on this trip; Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, have all been bombed this summer, so fate told me that maybe I shouldn't go there.  And I've been getting bored of Eastern Europe anyway.  So onto Brasil!

Here's what I've been doing since the last posting:

La Tomatina in Bunol, Spain was crazy!  If you could imagine total anarchy for an hour, you would come pretty close to La Tomatina.  I met my Estonian friend and her friend to participate.  The day started with a tall greased log pole with a big ham on top of it.  The goal was to get the ham.  It took about two hours, but it was entertaining to see how as a collective, people worked together to advance climbers up the pole as well as greedy bastards trying to pull people off the pole when they were close to getting to the ham.  Again, seeing human nature at work.  After that, the trucks full of tomatoes come in and the mayhem starts.  I bought goggles thinking that they would give me a throwing advantage, but I was wrong, as they fog up real quick.  By the end, I didn't have my goggles, my shirt was torn off and used as a projectile and I had tomato remnants in every hole of my body.  Seems like only a few men made it out of there with their shirts.  Unfortunately, I was separated from the two Estonian girls I was travelling with.  When I found them and asked them how it was, they told me that they had their shirts and bras ripped off, but somehow managed to keep themselves covered.  They really hated the Spanish guys after that.  I asked them if it was foreigners doing it, but they said that it was the Spanish guys.  I did notice that it was the Spanish guys ripping off girls' shirts and I thought that it was really fucked up and pushed the guys away when they were doing it to some girls near me.  So, a tip for girls who want to participate in La Tomatina: Wear two one piece bathing suits and take a few men that you trust with you throughout the chaos.  All in all, I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was younger, but at my advanced age, I thought it was mostly annoying.  I felt sort of like the sober guy at the party where everyone was drunk... more bitter than anything else.

After La Tomatina, I went again to Dubrovnik, Croatia to meet up with a good friend from San Francisco and his friends.  It was nice to see them and have a nice conversation for a change.  I've been speaking simple english to most people I've met and it finally feels good to express yourself fully for a little while.  We travelled through the Dalmatian coast and back to his hometown of Naples, Italy where we grubbed on pizzas, rice balls and octopus.  As we were travelling through Croatia, I got nostalgic about the good times me and my Lithuania girlfriend had there.  Being the unofficial tour guide in Dubrovnik, I took my friends to all the spots we went to in July.  This is where I started to seriously think about visiting her in Lithuania before leaving Europe and sometimes delusionally thinking about living there and finding freelance computer programming jobs to keep myself afloat.  I thanked my friends for keeping me company and lifting my spirits, as I was feeling soulless before they came.  After Naples, my friend had to go back to work, so the rest of us flew to Budapest, where they had protests to oust the prime minister.

 

Hello from Budapest, Hungary

Greetings from Budapest, Hungary!  This is my third day and I really like it here.  After camping for who knows how long, I am now in a bustling city, a welcome change.   I finally get to check the internet for a long period of time and I find that someone has stolen my credit card conveniece checks back home and now I fraudulently owe $475.  So I have to take care of this.  Technology like Skype and Efax and Online Bill Pay have made taking care of problems like this so much easier when you are travelling.  Kudos to the internet!  I don't know how people travelled without internet access before.  

I went salsa dancing last night to get back my salsa mojo.  Verdict:  I think it's partially back.  Budapest is a city that doesn't sleep.  People I met at the salsa place had work in the morning and still stayed out until 4am.  The people here are nice for big city folk.  I would definitely recommend Budapest as a must-visit if you are in Europe.  I'm going to stay here until Aug 23 to get back my salsa mojo, then I leave for Bunol, Spain to meet my Estonian friend so we can throw tomatoes at each other at La Tomatina on Aug 30.

Below is what I've been doing since leaving my girlfriend in Berlin: 

After Berlin, I based myself in Prague and stayed two nights at a campsite.  I took a daytrip to Kutna Horna to visit the church made out of bones.  Pretty cool, but I think it's not a must-do if you're in a hurry.  Prague is absolutely miserable in the summer.  Too many tourists and it's really hot.  I cannot recommend Prague as a must-see anymore because the tourist vibe has totally ruined it.

To get out of Prague and escape big city life for a while, I went to a small town in southern Czech Republic called Cesky Krumlov.  Beautiful town with a nice river winding through it.  Met a cool American guy from Austin, Texas who does acrobatic accusage, in which he lies down and puts his feet up.  Then you sit on his elevated feet where he supports all your weight and he makes you contort in many yoga-like positions as he massages you.  I tried it and it was weird, but fun.  He does this in the main square, so people can see, therefore it's sort of like a show and people drop money in his hat.  I had a good time in this little town because the hostel was cheap, the steaks were good and the vibe was more backpacker/traveller rather than camera-toting tourists, but in Europe, you cannot avoid this type of tourists anymore.

After Cesky Krumlov, I decided to go back to Poland for the last time on this trip to use my leftover Polish money and to hike in Karpacz and the Tatras mountains.  Finally, I get to use my tent!  Karpacz is on Polish side of the Poland-Czech Republic border.  Did a day hike there.  Nothing special, but there was this cool alpine coaster thing that was like a bobsled and if you were totally nuts or didn't know how to operate the brakes, you could seriously kill yourself.  I almost did :)

After Karpacz, I was planning to go straight to Zakopane, which is the town on the Polish side of the Tatras Mountains, but on my way there, it rained like crazy.  So again, I stopped at Krakow for two nights, because my logic says that if I go to the mountains, it will be miserable for camping.  In Krakow, I went to practice my salsa for the two nights, because it seems like weeks that I haven't danced and I felt like I was losing my dancing mojo.  Well, I was right.  the two nights I went, I was real rusty and lacked a lot of confidence.  I lost my salsa mojo :(  

During the day, I took a side trip to Aushewitz-Birkenau where the Nazis brutally murdered Jews, anti-Nazi Polish dissidents, gypsies and other so-called inferior races.  To see evil and hatred to that extent of seeing ovens and the conditions of the concentration camp rooms, I could not believe such evil exists in this world.

After Krakow, I did more camping in the Tatras mountains staying in Zakopane on the Polish side and Tatranica Lomnica on the Slovakian side.  Hiking in the Tatras Mountains is a must-do when you are in the region.  The scenery was beautiful and the hikes were long and some parts were physically challenging.  I preferred the views and trails on the Polish side more than the Slovakian side because there were a lot of downed trees in the Slovakian side due to a freak storm there in 2004, so a lot of the trails were ruined.  After six nights of camping and five days of walking alone for eight hours a day, I was exhausted.  I contemplated a lot about my girlfriend in Lithuania and the times we had together.  I miss her a lot.

After the Tatras, I went to Kosice, Slovakia for a night to upgrade my tent.  For $17, I bought a two-man tent and got rid of my claustrophobic, leaking one man tent.  Camping has saved me lots of money this week.  I was well under $20 a day for the weeks that I've been camping.   Slovakia was super cheap.  My tent was cheap.  The beer is the cheapest in Eastern Europe and it's good!  If you want to get drunk on a budget, Slovakia is where it's at, but I guess if you're in a hurry, Slovakia could be one of the countries you can miss.

On to Hungary!  I went first to Eger, a small town on the northeastern part of Hungary to partake in the wine tasting in the Valley of Beautiful Women.  I tried out my new tent and it is sweet!  I can actually sit up in my tent!  And it rained a lot at night and there was no leaks or water condensation!  I was literally a happy camper :)

The red wine in Eger is nice, especially the Bikaver, their blend of three different grapes they grow in the region.  In the valley, all the wine cellars open up at around 8pm and you can "sample" their wines for free or a small fee.   I guess they call it the valley of beautiful women because after all the wine you drink, the women all start to become beautiful :)

On to Budapest.... 

Wroclaw Salsa festival and Lovin' in Dalmatian Coast, Croatia

Greetings from Berlin!  As I left off in my last entry, I went with my Lithuanian girlfriend to the salsa festival in Wroclaw, Poland.  It was my first one, and it was truly an intimidating experience.  So many good dancers and instructors and so many workshops to attend, that I was overwhelmed to the point of not ever dancing salsa ever again!  There were so many new moves to learn and so little time to practice and so many salsa performances by really good people that I was gonna get sick of salsa.  Those who know me well know that I don't take too many things seriously.  The salsa freaks here take their dancing waaay too seriously to the point that dancing isn't fun anymore.  Maybe it's just the way Eastern Europeans approach dancing salsa.  Where I learned in Colombia and how they dance in South America, it is not taken as seriously there as it is here in Europe.  It is more free-flowing, fun and sensual.  Here, it is more robotic, mechanical and structured....  very European.  I'm hoping that when I get to Israel, it will be more free-flowing again.  I even talked to the instructors who were Mexican and Chicano and they shared the same sentiment.  They always encouraged the people in class to have fun with it, but as I looked around, it looked like they were too busy counting and taking the class and instruction with such concentration that it looked like they weren't having fun.  For me, just another interesting cultural observation between europeans, latins and people of color...

After the salsa festival, we took a train to Krakow, spent a night there and the next day, caught a night train to Bratislava.  It was her first night train in Europe sleeping in a couchette, which is a small train compartment with six small beds, and for sure she did not have a pleasant experience in those claustrophobic train bunks.  Since it was her holiday and we wanted to have a good time, I wanted to limit her unpleasant experiences and discomforts, so we stayed in private rooms instead of hostels and took only one five hour bus ride from Dubrovnik to Split.  Bratislava is a nice town with many cafes and restaurants.  We spent one night there, then we flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

We really loved Dubrovnik.  The walled city, the nice Adriatic sea, the awesome and cheap seafood restaurant we found overlooking the marina, we loved this place and it ended up being our favorite.  Everyday we got out of bed at noon, ate lunch, swam and sunbathed at the nude beach, went back to the room, took long, involved showers, walked around the old city and ate dinner at 10pm.  I loved this new routine and wished we would have stayed here longer.  Dubrovnik's beauty reminded me of Capri a little, but without the rich folk shopping vibe.  I definitely recommend this place as a must-see if you're visiting Europe.

After three nights in Dubrovnik, we headed off to Split to catch a one hour ferry boat ride to Brac.  We spend four nights there doing more or less the same routine we had in Dubrovnik, you know, lover's holiday style.  The town we were staying at, Bol, is a nice little town with restaurants and lots of water related activities to keep people busy.  We frequented the nude beach here as well.  It seems like the farther you hike from where all the people are sunbathing, you always encounter a nude beach here in Croatia.  One of the days, we took a boat to the other island near Split named Hvar.  This place really reminded me of Capri, because of all the expensive-looking boats in the marina and the rich folk vibe.  The beaches here were stone slates and we didn't find the nude beach here, but it still had the nice, salty Adriatic sea water which is nice for swimming.  Brac and Hvar are nice islands which merit a visit, but if you're in Croatia for a limited time and want to see a lot, stay longer in Dubrovnik.

After spending time in the islands near Split, we went there to catch our flight to Berlin.  As we walked around Split for an hour and a half, we were disappointed not to have stayed at least a few nights there.  It was beautiful and it looked like there were things to do at night.  Since I still have some Croatian money left, I'm going back during this trip to explore Split and the rest of Croatia.  I literally fell in love with and in this country.

Here in Berlin, I am extremely sad, since we have to go our separate ways.  She has to go to the Hamburg Salsa Festival, then back to work and I will continue to travel Eastern Europe and be a bummed-out zombie for a while because all I know is that I'll be thinking about her and our sixteen wonderful days together.  She's the best thing that's happened to me in a long time and I'll truly miss and cherish the moments we've had.  I just hope she had as good of a time as I did, since I did put my heart and soul into making sure here holiday was just as enjoyable for her as it was for me.

Greetings from Wroclaw, Poland

World Cup fever rocks!  I just arrived here after a 17 hour bus and train ride from Amsterdam.  The funny thing about the bus ride from Amsterdam to Poland is that it goes through Germany, which is hosting little event that we call the World Cup.  As we drive through Germany, I noticed something real familiar that was happening in LA when the Lakers were winning championships.  If you're not from LA, let me explain.  When Shaq and Kobe were winning championships in 2000 thru 2003, everybody and their dead mommas had Laker flags sticking out of their vehicles.  Well, that trend seems to have caught on here in Germany where the German flags are out in full force in support of the semifinal match between Germany and Italy.  For me, just a weird recollection of the Laker glory days....  Oh and by the way, I got here in time to watch the game at a bar.  The Poles really wanted the Germans to lose because they stole the game from them in a similar fashion in the first round to knock Poland out in the first round.  It was a riveting game, but the Italians won it in dramatic fashion nearing the end of the second overtime, sorta like how the Germans beat the poles; late goals near the end of extra time.  I guess it's true what they say...  what goes around, comes around...

On the subject of Italians and Italy, I left off the last blog waiting for my cousin to arrive so we can travel together for a while.  We met each other in Warsaw, went to Krakow the next day to catch our flight to Bologna, Italy.  We met up with her italian exchange student friend and he showed us around for a few days in Bologna and Apricena.  Real nice guy!  One of the coolest things I'll remember is this dome-like structure with four pillars he showed us in Bologna.  In the days of the plague, lots of people were dying, but there were still sins to be confessed, so they built this structure so that a priest can talk into a pillar on one end and the confessor can be at the other end hearing what he's saying!  It was weird talking to a wall and have it talk back to you!  They did this so that priests can hear confessions without catching the plague.  Freakin weird, but I really like this kinda shit! 

Then we went down to the small town of Apricena on the southeast coast of Italy.  My cousin's friend owned a powerboat and took us to explore the Adriatic coast for a whole day.  The seaside towns we visited were beautiful.  His family was so hospitable and nice.  I guess that's typical of italian families in the south.  The chili pizza his grandma cooked still makes me drool today!  The meal I ate in his house was the best meal I've had in 2006!  I just wanted to wrap her up and send her home with me, she was so sweet and cooks so well.  Why don't they make women like this anymore???

After we stayed a few nights in the southeast coast, we went to Naples, on the southwest coast.  I really liked Naples, more than Rome, Venice or Florence.  The food was tasty and cheap.  There weren't that many American tourists.  And the people speak an awesome Italian dialect full of flavor.  The pizzas I had there had lots of fresh tomatoes and little cheese, just the way I prefer it.  

While at Naples, we took a day trip to Capri, an island for rich folks.  It reminded me of Monaco.  We went all the way to the top of the island and saw breathtaking views of the island and the islands surrounding it.  I made my cousin walk all the way down from the top to the ferry, a walk I think she'll never forget.  We went through the small streets and saw all the nice gardens and houses and views the rich owners got.  If you're ever down in Naples, you cannot miss taking a day trip here to Capri.

After Naples, we went to Rome.  Nothing much to write about, since I've already been there in 2000, nothing has changed.  Just more tourists.  And we watched the Italy-Czech Republic game, which Italy won 3-0, so people were in a good mood.  

Then we went to Venice for the day.  My cousin finally cracked and bought a purse from Italy, knowing fully that she has to carry it around with her for the rest of the trip.  She was a happy camper the rest of the day...

Until we had to go take the 12 hour night train from Venice to Vienna.  We were unfortunate enough to get the car that had a broken air conditioner and had no windows.  I thought my cousin was gonna go nuts, which she did, but not as crazy as I thought she would.  I stayed cool because getting aggravated with the air conditioning not working will just make you hotter and will not fix the problem.  After a few hours, the train staff moved us to a car with air conditioning and all was good.

Vienna is a nice little city.  I didn't think it would be so nice, but it took me by surprise.  The city is full of immigrants from all over the world.  I don't even know how a typical viennese european citizen looks like and I'm normally really good with broad generalizations.   There was a weekend music festival near the river with different types of music and food.  I really liked the sausage with some kind of cheese inside.  I will have to come back here to explore a little further, since we only stayed one night.

Onto Prague.  I've been here already back in 2000, so nothing really surprising for me.  I realized that there were so many American tourists there, which is just a drag.  Just watched a lot of World Cup games, since in the main square, they set up a big screen TV.  Tried absinthe for the first time.  Not impressed.  Looks like mouthwash and I can imagine after drinking it that mouthwash would taste the same as absinthe.  It's supposed to be really strong, but after three shots, I was still ok.  Nothing special here.

And then Rotterdam.  My cousin had another exchange student friend living there and we saw the working, business side of Holland.  His friend's girlfriend had a speedboat and we went through the canals of Rotterdam.  It was a pretty sweet trip.  They have really interesting modern architecture there and if you're a young architect, I think you would enjoy your work in Rotterdam.

Finally Amsterdam!  My cousin goes home from here, so we finished her trip off right :)  This is my third time here and I still love this place!  You really feel like you can do whatever you want, just don't hurt anyone.  It's such a great philosophical place for me.  

Now I'm back in Poland to resume my eastern european travels.  I meet my friend from Lithuania in 6 hours so we can go to the salsa festival here for the weekend.  I haven't danced in about 2 weeks, so I'm real anxious to go.  I hope I haven't lost anything and hope that she still wants to dance with me.  Can't lose my mojo now, since I've been salsaing continually since the beginning of the year.  Wish me luck and hope I come out of this festival a new dancer!  

 

Baltics 2006 Photo Link

For those hounding me about writing too much and want to see pictures, click on the link below:

Click here to see my photos of the Baltic states and Baltic salsa friends.

Baltics Summary
I just finished a month in the Baltics. Now, I am in Krakow, Poland. The weather was cloudy all of May. I was hoping that it would clear up by June, but it's still pretty crappy.

After leaving Estonia, I went to Vilnius, Lithuania. A german salsa guy I met in Tallinn told me that there was only one place where they played latin music in Vilnius, Pabo Latino. I went there on a Wednesday night with a bunch of British blokes and realized that it was a mistake to do this. They denied me entry, citing there was a "private party" there. I even tried to go there without the British stag party thirty minutes later, but they had to keep up their lie. Lesson learned - Don't go anywhere with a big group of British guys anywhere in the Baltics, because all they do is get drunk and cause trouble.

I am gonna continue commenting on this issue of British stag parties. I think they are the cancer of the Baltics and the rest of eastern europe. They go to these places because of their strong British pound and basically act like drunken assholes. If you are american, think of bachelor parties in Las Vegas or Cancun or Tijuana and you'll get the picture. Also, these British holiday makers make eastern europe more expensive for us backpackers because of their strong british pound. Also, the Brits I've met seem to all be real estate speculators. They buy houses and apartments in eastern europe with their british pound and make it expensive for locals to live in their own country. I've talked to many locals and they say they have to live 30 minutes to an hour away from their workplace because of the foreigners buying up the good properties. Americans do the same thing in Costa Rica and Mexico. I really hate this practice because it kills the local culture and denies poor backpackers like me from an authentic experience. But enough negativity for now...

So after being denied on Wednesday, I tried to get in Pabo Latino on Friday. No problem getting in at all. There were very few salsa dancers here, but I was able to dance with salsa sisters of Vilnius! They are the best dancers in the city. If you're ever there and want to take salsa lessons, look them up at:

http://www.salsasisters.lt

Vilnius is a real nice city. The restaurant, cafe and bar scene is what makes it special. It seems like the bars and restaurants are all in underground cellars, which makes for an interesting ambience. A half liter of beer in a bar is 5 litas or less than $2 US. And the beer is excellent too! The old town is nice and the people are friendly and a little warmer than Estonians. Daytrips to Trakai with its island castle and walking around the old town left a nice impression on me. And the beautiful and chatty girls as well, actually the warmest girls in Baltics.

Oh yes, I have to talk about this cheezy European thing called Eurovision song contest. Basically, every year, all the European nations enter a song, perform it and all of europe votes on the best song. I was in Lithuainia at the time and they had a pretty silly song, but it was catchy! All the bars were showing the results, which I found strange because you don't see American Idol finals in US bars because that whole shit is just silly. But it seems like Europe has its cheezy elements too. Oh yeah, Finland won with a heavy metal song and they performed with a cheezy KISS theme. It was a good song, but I think what brought it over the top was the KISS performance.

After 4 days in Vilnius, I went to the Lithuanian coast city of Klaipeda for a night. I went primarily to see the Sand Dunes in Nido. Nice town. Big sand dune. Too bad the weather was bad. Off I go to Riga.

Riga, Latvia was supposed to be my next destination after Tallinn, but because of World Hockey Championships, I decided go skip ahead to Lithuania and see Latvia after the hockey fans left and hostel prices went back to normal. I just came to Riga to practice my salsa, as it is the salsa capital of the Baltics and I was able to salsa from Tuesday to Friday.

Old town Riga has beautiful art nouveau architecture. Beer in a bar is expensive, about $4 for a half liter. For me, it was just a little too western for my taste and lacked authenticity. The salsa people I met were as usual, real friendly and enthusiastic about dancing. Most of the salsa people were russian, but that's expected, since Latvia is almost half Latvians and half Russians. The Latvians I met in Riga all seem to be students and work two jobs. They are a people who like to keep busy and can never be accused of being lazy. Again, like in Estonia and Lithuania, many beautiful girls, but not too chatty. I think this stems from British stag parties and how they just ogle these girls in their drunken stupor. If the girls see this behavior from foreigners, they become mistrustful and cold to them.

I stayed in Riga for two weeks to dance salsa and saved money by not drinking and staying at a cheap hostel ( US$11 ). The pastry shops and local sausage was my food of choice in Latvia.

After Riga, I went back to Vilnius for two days to attend the salsa sisters' party. Let's just say that it was a great decision on my part and I had a real nice time. As for you who know me well, I don't like to make commitments, but I made TWO commitments after my time here in Vilnius. The first one was to go back to Vilnius to attend this party. The second one is that I will attend salsa congress on July 6-9 in Wroclaw, Poland with one of the salsa sisters. She made a big impression on me and I just knew that I had to see her again. Oh, the crazy things men do for love...

Now, I'm here in Krakow, Poland trying to save money. I'm sorta getting a negative vibe here, because of all the American tourists I'm seeing. School just finished in the states and it seems like the Americans are making their mark here in Eastern Europe. It's not that Americans are bad and I hate them, but when I travel, I enjoy meeting locals, soaking up local culture and doing local things. Krakow is flooded with tourists and tourist related shopping, all lacking in authenticity. I know it's my problem, so I'll just have to deal with it. Hopefully, as I go to Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria the authenticity improves.

My cousin from the Philippines is coming in a week to travel with me for a few weeks, so I will be excited to see her and show her the backpacker ropes. We're gonna be travelling fast and spending lots of dough, so I'm just gonna wait it out here in Krakow for a week. And a friend I met travelling in Venezuela and Colombia will be here the end of the week, so I'm enthused to meet her too!

Well, time to end this post. Please excuse the negativity in some parts, as this blog is more for me and my reflections at the moment. When I get old and forget little parts of my travels, I like to be honest with myself and my feelings and if I fill this blog with just nice things and memories, my travel experience would not be authentic and complete. Just be forewarned that my travel experience is very biased and you should travel for yourself and find your own experience.

Hello from Tallinn, Estonia
For those who don't know, I went insane again and started another long term backpacking trip. This time, I'm estimating that it will last about eight months and should cover Eastern Europe, the Meditteranean countries of the middle east and north Africa. Who knows how far I get...

Right now, I'm in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. Estonia is one of the Baltic countries, south of Finland and west of Russia. First impression: Beautiful girls! It was hard to find a real ugly one. They?re nice enough, but cold compared to Brazilians and Colombians. I arrived here on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 and am still here for one reason only.... SALSA!

I was afraid that once I got to Eastern Europe that all my four days a week of salsa dancing in New York would go down the drain, but magically last Friday, I was just walking around and I heard the sweet music that's been moving my ass since the beginning of 2006. It was at a terrace cafe attached to a park. I crashed the party accidentally where they were serving free all you can drink alcohol! Havana Club rum rocks!!! Then I danced with a few people and started to talk to them about the salsa community in Tallinn. They said it's small, but growing. So after the party, they took me to their salsa school and met their teachers. Then after the class we went to the only place in the city where they play salsa, Club Havana and met more salsa freaks. I just realized that salsa is a worldwide phenomenon and it will be available anywhere I go. Meeting all these nice people, I knew I was gonna stay a while. Actually, I met up with them last night and will meet up with them again tonight.

Not all has gone well, though. For the first time in my travelling experience, I lost my ATM card. Over here, you have to push a button to get back your card. In my inebriated state after a hard night of drinking, I took my money and receipt from the machine, but left the damn card in there. But, I'm OK. I have like three bank accounts just in case these things happen.

Yesterday, I went camping for two days and two nights in Lahemaa National Park to test out my camping gear. It was a nice park with nice trails and wild animals. I got scared shitless by a wild boar, which was about to eat a bunny. I scared it too and saved the poor bunny's life. As for my camping gear, my tent suck! Water condenses from the cold air outside and my warmth inside, so by the next morning, the dew is all inside my tent, like a icy cold glass of water sweating outside of the glass. Now I have a cold which I'll have to recover from.

I'll end this entry by teaching you guys the Estonian word for "CHEERS". The Estonian translation is "TERVISEKS". Now imagine me and a whole bunch of estonians drinking beer and now it's time to say cheers. Then they say this word and we clink glasses. What did you think I heard? It certainly wasn't TERVISEKS. So I ask my estonian buddy to spell out the word for me. So he did and I let out a big laugh because I thought the word for cheers in estonian was "DIRTY SEX"! I talked to other foreigners about this and they came up with the save conclusion as me. A dutch guy thought they said "TURBO SEX". Another guy though, "PERVI SEX". Yeah... I know I have a dirty mind, so I'll always hold up a glass in Estonia, clink and say "DIRTY SEX"!